Ethnic-Religious Confl icts and the Travails of National Integration in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic

Oteh Chukuwemaka O., Eze. R. C.

Abstract

Any attempt to understand the development of the Nigerian State cannot escape a study of ethnicity and religion as some of the main challenges to the development of democracy, nation building and national integration. The nature and composition of the State is very important and central to the nature of the relationship that exists within it. If it is an unstable, hegemonic and illegitimate contraption, there is often the tendency of instability and chaos arising from the unhealthy rivalry that will always be built up within it. On the other hand, if it evolved on the platform of consensus and fair play, there is the tendency for it to have a serene domestic politics. The Nigerian situation is such that boycotted the due course of legitimization at formation and this posits serious consequences for its stability at the present moment. This posture is compounded by the intense use of State authority to cover up this malaise, which has in the final analysis impacted on the various segments of society, creating the psychological basis for arbitrariness of citizens and tendency to affront the dignity and rights of fellow citizens. The objective of this paper is to showcase the multi-ethnic and multi-religious complexity and diversity of Nigeria in a bid to establish the possible advantages and the needless domination or contradictory co-existence among groups. This paper therefore focuses on the persistent ethno-religious crises that have become a clog in the attempt at nationhood despite democratization, in a view to demystify its causes and proffer solutions.